I have a feeling, but can't find anything to confirm this, that since the Red Arrows are part of the military, they can't feature at any of the Olympic ceremonies.

Hope I'm wrong though

Don't say that! I love the Arrows, their displays are really amazing!

I'm sure it can be worked around. I hope so, anyway.

Earlier this year there was another petition about getting the government to save the Red Arrows as rumour had it during the spending review they were considering removing their funding. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveTheReds/

So, maybe their plans are by 2012 to disband the Red Arrows as an RAF squadron and through a Public Private Partnership, set up the Red Arrows as a separate entity. They'd no longer be military, and would no longer cost the MoD money...

Or am I just a cynic?

Said it was just a way to make sure the public shouted and the organisors said, oh we should do that, what a good idea.

Anywho, I'm sure the lads could arrange a convenient training day in the vicinity....

Find the supplier of newspaper ink & dose the lot with ((CH3)2Hg).

May take a few innocents along for the ride, but how the country could go forwards when the intellectual anchor that is the "tabloid reader" is taken out of the equation.

+ better get it done wuick though, as the symptoms can take up to a year to appear & we want these 'tards dead before 2012.

...The Sun and the British Nazi Party.

Pathetic.

Nothing stopping them doing an impromtu flyby now is there... ;)

Of course - based on their past history I have complete confidence that our government can find a way around any internationally agreed rules regarding the use of our military.

At the end of the Sydney olympics they had a RAAF F-111 flying overhead on afterburner.

I'm sure all kinds of precedents are being set by the Chinese in that regard...

More of an issue will be the nature of the display - to be visible to people in an enclosed stadium whilst conforming with the safety requirements introduced in recent years, which will likely prevent them from manoeuvring overhead.

Hope they can find a way, though. Perhaps a half-built stadium will afford a better view?

I'm sure I heard that the planes are due to retire before the date anyway.

Oh well whats the problem with a out of service plane, laden with explosive jet full, flying over a heavily populated area to worry about.....

Surely a full parade including battalions of infantry, cavalry, heavy artillery, nuclear chemical and biological weapons would be a much more appropriate image of post Blair GB to display to the world on the occasion of an international sporting event.

The parade could be filmed in black and white news real and have suitably rousing score played alongside as the tanks thunder by our monarch in full military uniform.

I'm sure such a display will look just as dignified as any other military display that springs to mind.

seriously people why are you so impressed when your leaders unzip their trousers pull out their weapons and wave them in your face? That's your local hospital waiting list flying over head and into one of Bushes friends over bloated retirement fund.

Maybe if you weren't so keen on bending over and asking for it you might not have such a large slice of your pocket money taken away from you every month.

...Not very a very green option, do you know how much CO2 those suckers push out. Perhaps it could be offset by turning Stratford into a forest after the games, instead of the urban jungle it now resembles.

F**k me, he's not wrong!

According to this link, the USAF Thunderbirds display team participated in the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics

http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/features/article.asp?id=662

Fantastic - the Sun publishes a pack of lies, gets their readership frothing, and presumably then pretends it changed a few minds. Tw@s.

Why don you shut up, that will save alot of co2 right away.

Or even better, go to Calfornia and complain about the Co2 there.

I wouldn't mind seeing a squadron of Su-27s strutting their stuff - in red, white and blue roundels of course - don't take me for a nu Labour mole. Nor Su-37s or Su-47s come to that. Don't suppose they could buy in few in? I mean, the budget is so bloody huge I'm sure I could sneak a couple of squadrons thru without anyone noticing. And anyway, so what if it goes over budget. The banking cartel will be laughing and this lot should have got the bum's rush by then so they won't care.

With all consideration to AC and his "Why don't you shut up......?" etc. (Last post before the pub then?) I'm less concerned with the CO2 issue than...................

Early in the week, the Olympic B*ggeration Committee announced that, in the interests of the greenest olympic games ever (Oooooo!), mere paying customers will be told how and when to attend the games while more valuable people - politicians, etc. - can ride to the games in their usual limos.

Meanwhile, later in the week, The Sun (which is, after all, the newspaper of record for all things British) announces that a few RAF types will be opening the ceremonies by flying antique, kerosene-burning faux warplanes back and forth above the Olympic crowds - thereby helping to raise the damp temperatures in the east end of London.

Attention learning-deficit members of the Brown administration and say after me, "It's spelled c-o-n-s-i-s-t-e-n-c-y."

Well if we're going to get the military involved, why not have a flypast by some shiny new JSF Lightning IIs.

Aren't they scheduled to enter service with the Navy in 2012?

the idea's dead in the water.

They will be privatised, however the government will still be 100% shareholder and there will be rolling strikes after various screw ups on pensions, new working practices (i.e. more work for the staff with reduced service to the customers), and pay